Metcalfe's Skinny: Topcorn (sweet cinnamon spice)

Product name: Metcalfe’s Skinny: Topcorn (sweet cinnamon spice)
Purchase details: £1.58 for a 75g bag (Asda)
Calories: 117 per 25g serving (351 per bag)
Country of origin: UK

Metcalfe’s Skinny is a brand of popcorn (or ‘Topcorn’) I’d never tried before but that I wanted to give a go. I much prefer sweet popcorn to savoury so it was this sweet cinnamon spice flavour from ‘the lovelier, lighter snack tribe’ that I decided to try.

This sharing bag (which I dutifully kept to myself!) featured a floral design and nice image of falling popcorn that promised to be light but filling. Confusingly, only 51% of the product was ‘popped butterfly popcorn’ so the ‘delicious natural flavourings’ obviously took up a lot of space! These consisted of sugar, cinnamon and full cream.

The Topcorn itself looked very much like the Tyrrell's Proper Popcorn: Sticky toffee pudding due to its pale colour, being coated in a powder rather than a glaze, and having a papery feel. There was also an element of cardboard to the scent but the hint of cinnamon still made the aroma a pleasant one.

In terms of the flavour, there was certainly no denying that it was sweet and tasted of cinnamon! The base popcorn flavour was like a creamier version of the type you get in the cinema, but this extra flavouring was very tasty indeed...I just would have liked it to be stronger. Generally, even the more thickly-coated pieces weren’t very powerful, although the ones nearer the bottom of the bag were far more delicious than the ones at the top.

 

As suggested by the Topcorn’s appearance, the texture was the same as the Sticky toffee pudding Proper Popcorn, but it wasn’t as powdery. The bag seemed to last for ages as well which was an added bonus.

I may have appreciated a stronger flavour from this sweet cinnamon spice Topcorn but it did have a nice level of sweetness. There was something really warming about it and I think it would be perfect for settling down to watch a Christmas film with.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7/10

Walkers Pops: Original

Product name: Walkers Pops: Original
Purchase details: £0.50 for a 23g bag (Tesco)
Calories: 102 per bag

I think it’s time to review another of the Walkers Pops varieties so here’s the Original version – exactly the same idea as Melted cheese & crispy bacon but a flavour which, for me, was safer!

I tend to find ‘plain’ crisps a bit hit and miss. With some higher quality crisps, like Kettle Chips, I find it hard to beat the Lightly Salted flavour but, in terms of everyday potato snacks, I usually find that kind of flavour really boring. As a result, I was interested to see exactly what I thought of these Pops: Original.

Despite being a new product for the UK and Ireland market, some things never change, so the Original flavour was represented by the colour red. Interestingly, whilst I always think of ‘original’ and ‘ready salted’ as being interchangeable, there was actually more to these crisps’ ‘seasoning’ than I first thought. Amongst other thing, it listed cheese powder, spices, herbs, and milk products such as whey powder. Maybe these things are present in ready salted products too but it’s not something I’ve ever noticed before!

These Pops were the same in appearance as the Melted cheese & crispy bacon ones, although they were paler due to the absence of orange powder. I couldn’t resist having a sniff of the inner bag and was surprised by how aromatic they were – I probably would have guessed that they were beef flavoured if I hadn’t known! Individually, though, they didn’t really smell of anything.

On munching through the bag, I was greeted with a familiar salty flavour, but not in an over-the-top way that caused me to worry about my health – even the feel of the crisps were powdery rather than grainy so, despite the red warning on the nutritional label’s salt section, they didn’t feel at all unhealthy. I also tried resting a few of the Pops on my tongue and found that my tastebuds tingled with additional hints of flavour that gave an almost cheesy taste.

Pleasingly, the texture of these Pops was unchanged from the Melted cheese & crispy bacon. They may have been thicker than standard potato crisps but it was good to know that, health-wise, they were lighter.

On the whole, these Pops pretty much tasted like plain potato chips, but the improved texture meant I’d definitely choose them over a standard bag of ready salted crisps in future.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 7.63/10